I : Assimilation - II

The tension in the air became greater,and the spiritual pressure radiating from Mr Roark increased as shown by the earth that started breaking at his feet.Most of the students were forced to their knees due to the sheer pressure that they felt,even Scarlet could not withstand it.However,Rain stood there with an unreadable look,seemingly bored of the performance Mr Roark was showing.

' Are you so scared that you are rooted to the ground,brat!? '

Rain chuckled when he heard that. ' You are in denial,Mr Roark. '

Mr Roark winced.He then noticed that Rain was standing without any signs of trouble,it seems that he was able to withstand the pressure that he exerted.Was this just a fluke?

' If this is all you can do,then I am sorry to say this,but you disappoint me. ' Mr Roark widened his eyes when he heard that.This brat was clearly mocking him! The anger he felt drove him to exert more power than he usually would and he lunged at Rain with his fury clearly displayed in his eyes.

' YOU DAMNED BRAT! ' He felt his fist make contact with Rain's face and without a moment of hesitation,he used that momentum and drove Rain's face into the ground,where it impacted with a small crater.

He suddenly stopped,realizing what he had done.He had killed a student.Many of the students were in shock as well,believing it to be so,including Scarlet and Aster.

However,in an instant,Rain pushed himself off the ground and stood up with a smirk present on his face.But before Mr Roark could even comprehend what had happened,he felt something hit him,which sent him flying into the walls of the gymnasium.It was instantly followed by another strike,then another.Relentless attacks were sent at Mr Roark who could neither make out his attacker nor where he was attacked from.He went flying from another strike,but back-flipped to gain some footing and landed on his feet.He looked at Rain with a look of shock on his face,and was even more shocked when he found Rain standing at the exact same spot,at the exact same stance just smirking at him.He wiped the blood off his mouth and could not help but wonder about what had happened. ' His movements,I can't read them! ' Before he could even react,he was struck again from the back but this time,he managed to catch sight of his attacker before he was sent flying and was extremely surprised to see Rain there with the same smirk on his face.He quickly turned back and found Rain just standing at the exact same spot just like before.

Both Mr Roark and the students there thought the same thing : ' Clone Magic !? '

Immediately taking action,Mr Roark chanted : ' Enchantment : Strengthen ' followed by, ' Create : Iron Great Axe ' . Not long after,a red aura started to form around Mr Roark while the dust from the air started to gather at his right hand,thus forming an iron axe. He charged at Rain,swinging down his axe with all his might.That was when he felt that it had made contact with Rain,for sure this time,as he saw the axe being smashed into Rain's neck.

He suddenly went wide-eyed,not because of the guilty he felt for attacking a student,but because he was astonished by the results of his attack.Mr Roark and the students did not expect to see the axe shatter instead... Mr Roark retreated from his attack by jumping back from Rain,creating a few feet in distance between them.He inspected his arm,and saw that it was bleeding heavily.

' W-what did you do !? '

Rain chuckled when he saw Mr Roark's reaction.

Not taking any chances,Mr Roark chanted : ' Great Iron Bombard! ' Iron dust started to gather in front of him,thus forming a shape of an iron fist,which immediately flew towards Rain.

Rain countered with : ' Trident '. Upon his chant,Mr Roark's attack was completely obliterated.But before he was able to start another attack,he saw an object flying towards him at great speed,and was unable to react in time.He closed his eyes,seemingly accepting his fate,when he heard something crack behind him.He hesitantly opened his eyes and turned around,surprised by the sight of a black trident impaled inside of the walls of the gymnasium.

' You were entertaining towards the end, Mr Roark.'

He turned to face the voice,and was frightened when he saw Rain calmly walking towards him.

' H-how are you this strong as a student !? ' He shouted,with his fear visible in his tone.

Many of the students had the same thoughts as Mr Roark as well,all of them were astonished by this display of power that Rain had shown,especially Scarlet.When she stared at Rain,she felt a foreign feeling rising up from within her.She caught herself blushing when she continued staring at Rain's charming face,with held the same cocky grin. ' S-so cool..' was the only thought that went through her mind.

Realizing what she was thinking,she shook these thoughts away and felt herself blushing tomato-red. Had she fallen for him?

Mr Roark repeated the same question,only much more calmer this time as he sensed that Rain was not hostile as of now. ' If you think that this is strong,you are sadly mistaken.The origins of my power is due to my lack of being overly-reliant on magic. That is one element that is present in almost all of the students in this school,including some of the teachers such as yourself,which explains your apparent weaknesses.'

Upon saying that,he simply walked away from Mr Roark,passing by his classmates.He spared a last glance at Scarlet,and gave her a smile before walking towards the exit of the gymnasium.

A few hours flew by,but the same event was etched into the minds of the students of Class I Sapphire-II.Rain was nowhere to be seen,apparently skipping the rest of the classes for today.Scarlet found herself longing for Rain,craving a chance just to talk with him.She slapped herself when she realized what she was thinking. ' I-I CAN'T BE FALLING FOR HIM,CAN I !? ' Many students eyed her warily,looking at her as if she had gone mad.However,Scarlet's thoughts was mirrored in other girls as well.Some of whom even fantasized about losing to Rain,thus getting ravished by him as a result of their result.Most of the boys who could read the girls' lewd thoughts about Rain sighed,envious and jealous of him at the same time,but at the same time,they were also in awe of his power.Aster was no different,he had tried talking to Rain before he left the gymnasium in order to better understand his skill but found himself unable to do so when Rain simply ignored him and walked past him.Aster sighed,he would try to talk to Rain later if he do get to meet him again...

Rain was sleeping under a tree in the academy's garden not too far from the classrooms.He was oblivious to his surroundings as he closed his eyes and made no attempt to listen for danger.He was deep in thought,thinking about the other things that Aster had told him when they were making their way over to the gymnasium earlier.He thought back to what Aster had told him a few hours ago...

'Aster.Can you tell me more about how the students in this school are ranked ? How do you advance from one class to another ? ' He questioned.

' Well,every year,there will be a competition held to decide the rankings of the student in this school! It is also a nationwide competition that involves many other schools as well who sends out multiple teams of students to compete with the other teams,which includes ours! ' Aster explained.

Rain raised an eyebrow at this. ' What is the name of the competition and how does it work ? '

Aster answered : ' Well,the name of the competition is the ' Crash Magica ' ! It occurs every year,and luckily for you,this year's is coming in about two to three months! '

Rain smiled when he heard this,if he was able to participate in this competition,maybe it would make reaching his goal much easier!

Aster continued : ' A total of eight schools or higher,which include ours,sends up to sixteen students who are partnered with another three of their teammates in the same chosen group of participants,thus totaling up to four teams of four per schools to fight against one another in this competition! Due to the nature of this competition,there is a chance that some teams will be going up against their own school's team as well,but the winner of this competition gains a chance to become one of the saints! The title of 'saint' is given to the top one-percent of students who won this competition and allows them to be recognized as some of the best youths alive! This title also makes it easier for youths such as us to rise up to be legends such as the 'Red Cardinal' and the others! '

' That is indeed a reward that I cannot let slip past,what are some of the rules of the competition and how do people progress through it ? ' Rain asked.

' Well,most of the rules will be explained on the day of the competition itself.But some of the rules that I do know of is that a team MUST have exactly four people in their team! There are no class requirements for the teams,so students can recruit from even the elite classes,that is if those who are invited do accept it.You can have any number of Knights,Sorcerers,or even other jobs such as Adventurers or Rangers as long your member count does not exceed four! Anyways,to answer your other question,the first part of the competition is to weed out the weaker teams.So the total number of teams,which is thirty two,will be halved.I'm not too sure on when the quarter-finals and whatnot takes place,but I assume it is at least a few days after each of the stages.Getting back to the various stages,after the preliminaries,it will be the quarter-finals where only the top eight teams will remain at the end of it.Just being in the top eight guarantees you a chance to be a Magic Knight in the future,which is not too bad even when in comparison to the better ranks such as the Saints. '

' How is the semi-finalists ranked then ? ' Rain asked inquisitively.

' Well,the top eight teams will participate in the semi-finals to decide the top four teams.Those who were skilled enough to be in the top four is guaranteed to be a captain of a squad of Magic Knights or perhaps even better if recognized.Afterwards,the top four teams will participate in the finals! '

This confused Rain. ' I thought that the finals were to decide who was the best between two teams ?'

' Ah,I can see why you are confused.I'm getting to it though,so just pay close attention! The finals will decide who is the the third and fourth best team in the competition,which will decide the final two participating teams.Those in the top two is naturally thought to be gifted and is acknowledged as the best in their generation.So they are able to easily get a rank as a Saint or become a top-level adventurer which is otherwise known as a Platinum-level Adventurer,which is similar to those who are in the top four,top eight and more as those ranked in the ranked I mentioned are also regarded highly by Adventurer Guilds as well ! Anyways,the best two team will be decided after the finals,which will start the final stage of the competition,which is known as the ' Magi's Divination '.

This is where things starts to change.Normally,the stages before the ' Magi's Divination ' has winning conditions that varies from the aforementioned.The earlier stages are usually won by either eliminating all four members of the opposing team or by capturing the Elysium Crystal of the opposing team.However,the ' Magi's Divination ' will usually be won in only a single way,which differs from year to years so I do not know that information ! However,the team that comes out on top as the strongest team of the competition are given a chance to be a Crystal-level adventurer,which is the highest ranked Adventurer! They can also choose to be what we would call a 'Divine Being'.Some examples of 'Divine Beings' is the 'Red Cardinal',which is probably one of the famous ones alive,the ' Darkin Dark ' and the ' Radiant Rebel.'

Rain widened his eyes when he heard this,this competition had completely exceeded all expectations that he held for it in an instant! ' You are telling me that the best team will become 'Divine Beings',similar to those aforementioned legends? '

Aster nodded his head.

Rain smiled widely.Normally,people are given a title when recognized by the general public or their enemies,such as ' Raika ' and ' Blue Bolt '.But those who become 'Divine Beings' are considered the best of the best,and are granted titles much easily than the others as it symbolizes their prowess and skill.

'One final question,how do you join it and what are the requirements? 'he asked.

Aster shrugged his shoulders.'When it is close to the date of the competition,the school will release information on the requirement and provide opportunities to join as well.So the only thing we can do now is to train ourselves or to find out who we want to have in our teams in order to make sure that all of us will be strong enough to enter! '

'I see...' Rain chuckled.

It is all clear to him now.He must gather three other students that also desire to win the competition just like him.He will not settle for anything less.He MUST become a Divine Being.

While thinking about this,he was reminded of Mr Roark's defeat against him.He was surprised when he left without much trouble,and was even more confused when there was nobody looking for him which was surprising considering the fact that he had gravely injured a teacher.

Rain was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard something,or rather,someone descending from the tree he was sitting below of.

He was quickly on guard,getting ready to face the incoming danger and a potential attacker when he heard a voice from behind him.

' We finally meet. My dear Rain... '